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CORRESPONDENCE 



WITH THE 



NAVY DEPARTMENT. 







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CORRESPONDENCE. 



Stoddard Farm, May 5tli, 1863. 
Hon. Assistant Secretary (G. V. Fox) of the Navy : 

Dear Sir, — The vital existence of tliis Datioa — the magnitude of na- 
tional defences — is a sufficient excuse why all its citizens should think in 
that direction. 

You say a 1 5-inch gun is wanted, therefore you know it must be a possi- 
bility. "Well, I like your intrepidity. With equal assurance I affirm a 
6ast-iron gun, of sufficient strength, is an absurdity. If it is possible 
with other metals to make it sufficient in strength to bear a requisite maxi- 
mum charge of powder, 20 tons will not counteract recoil. Powder sufficient 
to drive a 15-inch solid ball with sufficient range and accuracy, will re- 
coil with sufficient force in a 20 or 25-ton gun to knock any turret into the 
drink — at least into pi. To attain the best possible result from an 8-inch 
cahber, you require at least 25 tons in weight. For my country's sake, I beg 
this enlarged caliber monomania may subside. 

From the bureaus that have been provided by law to disburse the treasure 
that has been appropriated for engines, ships-of-war and ordnance, we have 
nothing to hope. Those chairs are draped in the blood of my fellow-coun- 
trymen ; their garments are reeking with frauds upon the nation's treasure. 
Had they have been in JefF. Davis' Cabinet they would have been compara- 
tively harmless. They name my ideas as my bantling of no possible prom- 
ise. Well, those banthngs have since been admitted into good society in 
Philadelphia, very prettily comphmented in Cincinnati, and deemed worthy 
of notice and solicitation from officers of tolerably respectable foreign gov- 
ernments. For myself I ask nothing. In common with my fellow-country- 
men, who are now investigating these subjects, we demand, in return for 
national treasure^iie fastest war-ships, the best and longest range guns, and 
shells filled with /balls and unquenchable fire — aU of which our engineers, 
mechanics ana chemists are able to produce. To attain these i-esults, you 
are aware, has been my most ardent desire, and for which I have labored 
with zeal. The future will determine the degree of knowledge. I think you 
will not impugn my motives. The seed is sown, is beginning to germinate ; 
a portentious pubhc sentiment, no bigger than a man's hand is appearing. 



I would that an able hand would place before tbe people without delay 
the reason why our President and his Cabinet should not be held responsible 
for the acts of these bureaus provided by law for this special service, as checks 
and balances, but whose omissions and commissions now require the most 
summary interference. Their malpractices are so flagrant no gentle curva- 
ture will save a furor of public sentiment. A right-about-face is demanded. 

I trust and hope only the guilty may suffer. I long to see the day when 
Mr. Lincoln may be surrounded by the archimedean power the mechanic, 
artizan, chemist and engineer of this nation can render in war. When those 
men can have their skill developed by the fostering hand of government 
patronage, in a just war we can defy a world in arms. I would not abate 
one jot or tittle from any just national claim we ever made on land or water. 
I am willing to fight, but I will not consent that men, whose work to me 
evidences easy or doubtful loyalty, shall bind upon me weapons known to 
be the retrograde of progress. 

Please acknowledge this, chide me if I deserve it, and believe me your 
friend and ardent lover of the whole country. 

M. STODDARD. 

P. S. An association of gentlemen in Buffalo would like to furnish your 
Department with some propellers built in Buffalo. 143 feet keels could be 
run through the Canada canals; we can build 100, 110 or 120 feet keels, 
that are good, staunch sea boats. We will furnish the best security that the 
minimum speed shall be 14 miles per hour, and for that speed we will fix a 
price that shall be below cost, and a percentage for every mile above 14 per 
hour. The trial to be, of course, in smooth or stih water. We will under- 
take to furnish you on 143 feet keel 20 miles per hour, fixing price at 14 
miles at less than cost. 

The value of such vessels for expresses, blockaders, etc., you understand. 
We have pretty good authority upon which to base these opinions of speed. 
I would be glad to direct an investment of this kind. I think I could make 
it worth millions to the Go^^ernment by indicating in a clearer light larger 
investments. With this speed in the vessel I propose, their power of useful- 
ness could not be over-estimated. There is one here now, built for towing 
on these lakes, whose speed to you would appear incredible. She has been 
sold for over $5,000 more than her cost on account of speed. 

We have unquestionably upon Lake Erie beat the world both in propel- 
lers and side-wheel steamers. We should be glad of an opportunity to make 
our united skill productive in war appliance?. 

Respectfully, " , MOSES STODDARD. 

G. V. Fox, Assistant Secretary U. S. Navy. 



Navy Department, May 12tli, 1863. 

Sir, — Your letter, without date, proposing to build for the Navy Depart- 
ment a propeller vessel of 143 feet keel, of which the spe^d shall be 20 
miles per hour has been received. 

As the Department is only in want of vessels for sea service, such a ves- 
sel should be strong enough for that purpose, and have condensing engines, 
with brass propeller. She should also be copper-fastened and coppered. 
The armament will weigh about 30 tons; the crew will be about 100 per- 
sons, with provisions and stores for one month, and not less than 100 tons of 
coal to be carried in the bunkers. The speed, under steam alone, to be 
made for 1 2 successive hours, at the load draft of water with all her weights 
on board. 

You will be good enough to state the price at which you propose to de- 
liver such a vessel at any port on the Atlantic. The vessel to make 20 
miles, and the price to be reduced in proportion to the cube of the speed 
actually made, to the cube of 20. The Department to have the option of 
rejecting the vessel if she makes Isss than- 14 miles per hour. 

Very respectfully, 

G. A. FOX, 
Assistant Secretary of the Navy. 

Mr. Moses Stoddard, Buffalo, N. Y. 



Stoddard Farm, May 20t}i, 1863. 
G. V. Fox, Assistant Secretary U. S. Navy: 

Dear Sir, — I desire to send you a private letter. Imagine yourself a 
private citizen. I have noticed in you a quick perception and an apparent 
degree of frankness not common with your suri-oundings, also decided re- 
serve when deemed necessary. I thought I saw a trace of concealed i-egret 
on account of the necessity — perhaps imagination on my part. 

This fact is patent to all : our national life is threatened ; we have been 
wounded in our very vitals. Under the guise of friends and supportei's 
vampires have been sucking our vital supports, while their fellows, more 
honorable and less dangerous, have openly assaulted us in front. That pri- 
vate citizens, in all parts of this land, should be aiding and abetting treason 
is horrible to contemplate. When we see the evidences that have developed 
since this outbreak in the departments at Washington of active treason, of 
sympathetic treason, of doubtful loyalty, have we not more reason to ascribe 
to Providence our salvation thus far from utter ruin, than to our skill and 
valor in defending our heritage ? 

We have not exercised the attributes of a strong sovereign government 
upon traitors caught in the nation's capital in the departments of Govern- 
ment, in the very act of spying an opportunity to save our enemies (the 



6 

traitors against humanity of world-wide import), and to inflict fatal wounds 
upon our national life. The impunity extended crimes, which under all codes 
of civihzed war in all times forfeit hfe, has warmed into active treason mor- 
bid loyalty throughout this land. 

The more cautious and wary sugar over their treason. They tell the peo- 
ple it is only a political squabble ; that it is a speculators', a contractors' 
war, gotten up by speculators for the purposes of peculation, and that the 
originators don't want it ended until the nation's money is exhausted. They 
adduce as evidences of these allegations : That the ships we build with the 
nation's treasure to make war efficient can't move with speed ; that the guns 
our ordnance officers construct were known to be worthless by the loyal 
mechanics and engineers of the nation before they were constructed, and 
that they protested against their construction. What can you say, what can 
I reply, to such specious arguments ? 

I know the difficulties that surround the Government officials, I know the 
division of labor and responsibilities provided by law as checks and balances, 
I also know of the wrongs, the frails, the .. incapacity, that exists in the bu- 
reaus, that crops out in these ships and guns. With the Departments, as 
organized since the war broke out, I don't believe it possible to have con- 
fitructed within Government yards a ship with power to run down the 
Alabama, or to ha^e made guns superior to those she carried. It was pos- 
sible for the heads of those departments to have given notice to my fellow- 
countrymen, before she made her advent, that this Government wanted a 
ship that would take the Alabama or drive her from the sea ; and that they 
would pay a liberal price for one or more ships for that purpose. The order 
would have been filled in four months, perhaps less. 

The nation became intoxicated with the fact that the Merrimac did not 
quite ruin us. We had the assurance at that time to say to the Govern- 
ment, it is not policy to multiply monitors, other nations most probably will, 
we should build specially to destroy monitors. I assure you it is possible to 
construct a vessel, that will not cost more than a monitor, that would safely 
attack and destroy a whole fleet of them, with just as much certainty as a 
sword fish attacks and destroys a whale. Believing these facts, and loving 
my country, can my anxiety be suppressed? Can I turn my eyes from the 
fact that some mighty mechanical genius may espouse the cause of treason ? 
Suppose for one moment a vessel of 20 or 25 miles speed, in eveiy way 
manageable, presenting but her middle or bearing surface above water, and 
this an elongated spherical presentation, sufficiently shielded to turn shot ; 
and if she did not carry a gun could she not punch a hole into every block- 
ader off" Charleston? Or suppose she was mounted with one such gun as I 
shadowed to you, of 8-inch caliber, she could choose her distance and un- 
changeably fix revolving turrets. 



We have a foe to contend with that has been reared upon human blood, 
that no treaty can bind, that regards not an oath ; that can don the livery 
of a devotee to make the assassination of a country, government, mother, 
friend, more fatal. They have been accustomed to dealing in human rights. 
Pirates and gamblers in human life, they care little for their own life. Have 
we less at stake ? If we are mean enough to surrender our own rights, have 
we a right to fritter away the legacy of our fathers, of which we are only 
the legatees for future transmission ? Or to expose it to such imminent 
peril as we have done, in consuming the sinews of war without producing 
efficient speed in war-ships, and guns up to the best practical mechanical 
science ? 

The time has arrived when the Government requires the active support of 
all loyal citizens, their combined support and utmost skill and courage, to 
carry this nation through surrounding dangers. We have no more time to 
lose, no more treasure to waste, in ships and guns that don't develop the 
best known mechanical and nautical science. The vestment of another dol- 
lar in big cast iron guns is treason, no matter by whom perpetrated. The 
people know better now. Those men that fraudulently reported their trial 
and merits knew better then ; they lied to defraud a confiding people. Have 
we not a right in these times to judge of men's motives by their acts? We 
were early taught, " by their acts ye sliall know them." 

Since this wai* commenced I have given the subject of vessel construction 
some thought. I frankly say to you, I have not studied any books on naval 
architecture, hydraulics or hydrostatics. I have constructed mill-dams and 
bulk-heads, have experienced forcible illustrations of the lateral resistance 
and non-elasticity of water in putting up bulk-heads against resisting floods, 
or changing bearings, etc. I doubt if Professor Heniy, in his elaborate in- 
vestigation of laws of force and resistance, has experienced more forcible illus- 
trations than I have of force and resistance in some of the narrow escapes of 
life and limb in these pursuits. And if the occasion has indelibly fixed in 
my mind a natural jDhysical or philosophical fact, may it not be just as val- 
uable, practically as useful as if I had drank it in more diluted draughts 
further from the fountain, or even in the Professor's class. I am satisfied 
we can not overcome resistance by putting power in a vessel to attain the 
desired speed. Faster than at the rate of 3 or 3^ miles per hour I don't 
think we can force water to give way. Say you draw a Hue from center 
of stem to stern post, another parallel to that at the end of longest beam. 
Now at the rate the water will have to pass from the stem to the second line 
when the boat is under way, will give you an inkling of her speed fixing it 
at 3 miles, which is probably all that can be made profitable, and doubtful if 
you can attain 4 miles. If this is correct, and it is believed to be about the 
attained results here, how important it is to look in the direction of avoid- 



8 

mg resistance in reducing the beam, instead of the impossible task of over- 
coming the comparative non-elastic resistance of water by adding to the 
power. If this is correct, it is to be regretted that the vessel you named to 
me Mr. Steers and Dickerson were, constructing of 300 feet keel and 41 
beam had not been even more cut down in beam. They undoubtedly will 
attain very good results compared to Government vessels of the past. With 
the immense wastes attending onr failures we certainly ought to make some 
startling departures from existing models. 

In relation to ordnance I am perfectly angry that the men we have edu- 
cated and paid for long life service can't give me the information I desire, to 
solve the problems that are presented to my mind for solution, and which 
are so important to know. My limited experience, and still more limited 
experiments, have forced upon me these conclusions. 

1st. That large cast-iron guns have had their time; their place is with 
the obsolete. That enlargement of caliber is not desired, but enlargement 
of maximum charges of powder, which require guns of much greater length 
and strength, and much greater weight. That guns firing large charges of 
powder must inevitably have immense weight. There is no other way 
practicable to resist recoil. Your monitor guns, with their large calibers, 
with a charge of powder to make them efficient from recoil (if the gun did 
not burst) would be more dangerous to us than our enemies. 

Rifled guns, and lead or any metal depended on to 'fill grooves, is of 
doubtful utility either for smal] arms or large guns. I believe it entirely 
practicable to use a linen patch, seamless and without folds, upon projec- 
tiles for rifled cannon or small arms. I behe^e our field artillery and boat 
howitzers would be far more effective if their calibers were reduced fifty per 
cent., use the same charge of powder as now, and retain the same weight of 
metal in guns as now, the recoil would be greatly lessened. 

I know a style of mounting the guns can be adopted that will greatly fa- 
cilitate accurate elevations, that will more than double their execution, and 
without in any manner impairing their mobility, or liability to casualties. 

MOSES STODDARD. 



Buffalo, May IGtli, 1863. 
Assistant Sec't U. S. N'avy, G. Y. Fox : 

Sir, — Your favor of 12th instant, came to hand yesterday, acknowledg- 
ing mine vdthout date. Gentle intimation. I have before felt the emphasis 
of your silence. 

I will build you a propeller as large as we can get through the Canada 
locks, I think 143, perhaps 145 feet in length, which shall be every way sea- 
worthy ; shall carry coal, armament and fixtures you name ; shall be copper- 



9 

fastened. I tliink 100 men more than required for lier class. At any rate 
she shall carry a requisite number with suppHes as you name. She shall be 
built in a proper manner, of proper material. Both hull and engine shall do 
honor to her contractors. She shall evidence throughout that her contrac- 
tors intended to make her one of the most efficient vessels of her class ever 
built. She Tvill be dehvered on the Atlantic coast, complete, for sixty -five 
thousand dollars ($65,000), making fourteen statute miles per hour; and 
for every mile over that up to 20 miles per hour 1 10,000 for every mile 
over 14. If you want brass propeller (which our engineers think entirely 
unnecessary) its cost over and above iron extra ; also extra for copper bottom. 
We would not touch her if we did not feel confident of attaining 1 8 miles. 
We intend she shall make 20 miles, and do the country efficient service. 
We will pledge our honor to do our best. Two years ago we could have 
built her for a much less sum. I find material and labor greatly advanced. 
She must be every way extra in fastenings and strength, to meet the demand 
of a great propelling power. 

We will furnish your Department with security that shall be entirely satis- 
factory to the Government, for the performance of our undertaking ; and in 
return ask of you the pay for work, say two-thirds, as the work progresses, 
the balance when completed, proved, and delivered as specified above. 

We will also undertake to get her up with dispatch. We would prefer' 
you would let us build two or more at the same time. 

With assurances of esteem, 

M. STODDARD. 



Navy Depaetmext, June 6th, 1863. 
Sir, — Your letter of May 16th has been received, but it is not in con- 
formity with your original ofier. The Department desires your proposition 
for a vessel to make the 20 miles named by you under the conditions ex- 
pressed in its letter of May 12th. Your offer must be without extras of any 
kind, and payment will be made when the vessel is tried and accepted. 

Very respectfully, 

GIDEON WELLES, 



Me. Moses Stoddaed, Buffalo, N. Y. 



Secretary of the Navy. 



Buffalo, June 9th, 1863. 
Hex. Gideon Welles, Sec. U. S. N'avy : 

Hon. Sir, — Your letter of 6th iust., acknowledging mine of 16th is re-' 
ceived. The Canada locks, I am informed by those claiming to know, are 
145 feet in length; that will limit us in lenoih of boat. 



10 

Your requirements in carrying capacity cramp our views a little on that 
lengtli of vessel. We shall not shrink from undertaking to furnish the De- 
partment 20 statute miles per hour with a vessel we can build upon these 
lakes and run through the Canada canals, with capacity to meet Department's 
views for eflScient service, believing the Department will nicely adjust the 
question of speed and carrying capacity, admitting speed as one of the pri- 
mary elements of efficiency. 

We will build the Department such a vessel copper-fastened, copper-bot- 
tomed, with brass propeller of proper m.ateria] — fastenings superior to any 
vessel ever built upon these lakes, all complete for use. Her wood-work and 
engine- work shall do honor to American mechanics in every particular in re- 
gard to proportion and strength. We will not go into fancy and ornamen- 
tal ; it shall be plain, but good style of work. 

We will furnish Department such a vessel that will make twenty (20) stat- 
ute miles per hour, for $150,000, or two at $145,000 each. If their speed 
falls below twenty (20) miles per hour, Department may deduct $10,000 
per mile for every mile short of 20 to 18; if below 18 miles deduct $15,- 
000 per mile; if below 14 miles Department is not required to take them 
at all. 

I find, on examination, my consulting mechanical engineers have been too 
much influenced in their estimates by the cost of work made for commercial 
purposes ; in fact the style of work I propose to get up we would be more 
likely to under- estimate than over. We very well know that the speed we 
are proposing has never been produced, if ever, not for this amount of money. 
We beheve we can produce 20 miles ; we also know that if we can, its worth 
to our country will be untold millions, and that upon a larger scale greater 
speed is attainable. We are willing to try to demonstrate pi'ogress. If the 
Department desire fraternity and cooperation, there wiU be no difficulty in 
fixing details, conditions, etc. The mechanics and engineers on these lakes 
are desirous to contribute to the Nation's strength in war ; we believe we are 
able to do it; our etForts will be accompanied with a will if we are ever per- 
mitted to try. We are proud of our nautical productions on these lakes; 
we believe we can excel any effort hitherto made. 

With highest consideration, 

MOSES STODDAED. 



Navy Department, July 10, 1863. 

Sir, — Your letter of the 9th ult., has been received. The propositon 
therein named by you is at the rate of about $330 per ton, which far ex- 
ceeds anything the Department has paid. The reduction you propose in 
price, is not in proportion to the cube of the speed, and a proposition was 



11 

expected from jou on the terms of your first letter to tlie department and its 
reply thereto. 

Very respectfully, 

GIDEON WELLES, 

Secretary of Navy. 
Mr. Moses Stoddard, Buffalo, N. Y. 



Buffalo, June 20tli. 1863. 
Hon. G. y. Fox, Assistant Sec'y U. S. Navy: 

■ Sir, — I acknoAvledge your civility in the flying call I made at your ofiice 
Tuesday evening- last week. Your statements were listened to with profound 
attention. However wide the margin that separates our opinions, it is a de- 
cided acknowledgment to honor me with these statements. Substantially 
you charge me with advocating too rapid progress. I thank you even for 
this tacit admittance. You have listened to me with attention ; replied by 
adducing facts, arguments, figures and illustrations. 

Your facts, 1280 feet velocity at muzzle of 15-inch gun, and with 50lbs. 
powder and hollow shot. We have long since had the official report of gov- 
ernment sworn ordnance ofiicers, of 1328 feet with 35 or 40lbs. adulterated 
powder. 

What do the public care about the initial velocity at muzzle of gun ? Why 
will not the ordnance officers tell us the initial velocity Avith which they can 
inflict a blow at one mile, three-quarters, half, and quarter of a mile ? This 
is practicable ; and why should not trial shots be made with solid shot and 
at elevations ? It is not expected that gun practice will hereafter, to any ex- 
tent, come within a fourth of a mile, and not probably within half a mile. 
Speed and range is now the struggle. 

You say most of the taxpayers know nothing of mechanics and engineer- 
ing ; therefore the money should not be vested in war appliances in accord- 
ance to the utmost skih and genius of our ablest mechanics and engineers, 
who pay but small part of revenue. We had supposed it heretofore, a pre- 
disposing infirmity of our people to boast of the skill and progress of our 
government officials in war appliances. I assure you there is nothing so 
mortifying to these same taxpayers as the facts that are now developing, 
which demonstrate to them that these government officials have failed to 
make good their boasting. 

You assert that progress should be slow and gradual. In support of it 
you introduced a geological figure. You said the earth was formed by im- 
mensely slow and gradual formations — strata rising above strata — and by 
depots of inconceivable insects, etc., etc. I repfied, it sometimes advances by 
rapid and irresistible impulses ; that mountains were upheaved, islands disap- 



12 

peared or were thrown to the surface — the work of a day or hour. You 
denied the fact. I will respectfully refer you to authority. 

(We omit geological authority quoted, and remarks.) 

You assert that a cannon suspended would throw a projectile as far as 
if imbedded in sohd masonry. I would respectfully enquire how far the 
projectile would go if It was of the same weight as the suspended gun? and 
will you be influenced by the failure of your facts, figures or illustrations ? 

The people are forgiving. They will soon forget the past if they can see 
reforms entered upon in earnest. They can only be diverted by seeing the 
future investments productive of efficiency in war. There is an investigation 
of these subjects pervading the people at this time, that has no parallel in the 
history of this country — perhaps no other. I earnestly entreat you to ac- 
cept its teachings. Fraternize with it — encourage it. Frankly own the 
demonstrated errors of the past as an earnest enquirer after truth and pro- 
gress. The people will gratefully remember you for so doing. 
With consideration and respect, 

M. STODDARD. 



Stoddard Farm, July 15, 1863. 
Hon. G. Welles, Sec'y U. S. Navy: 

Sir,-. — I have the honor to receive your letter of 10th insfc., in which the 
honorable secretary says : " The proposition named by you is at the rate of 
about $330 per ton, which far exceeds anything the Department has paid." 

I would respectfully suggest the Department would estimate the cost of 
my proposition, by comparing the cube of the speed proposed with that of 
the Miami (the Miami by the press was reported to have made two miles per 
hour on her first trip) and numerous other vessels of the Department. 

You also say, " The reduction you propose in price is not in proportion to 
the cube of the speed, and a proposition w^as expected from you on the terms 
of your first letter to the Department, and the reply thereto." 

I will build one or more vessels on the terms of my first letter, and the 
Department's reply thereto, and will meet the Department and in my pre- 
sence allow them to fix the terms from those letters. 

And second, I will offer to get up for the Department a vessel that shall 
make 20 miles per hour — if she fails Department not required to accept or 
pay — and she shall combine other qualities requisite to make her efficient 
in service. This can only be done by an aggregation of varied mechanical 
power and capital. Price and other unimportant details to be mutually ar- 
ranged. 

With consideration and respect, 

MOSES STODDARD. 



13 

P. S. — As an addendum to the foregoing, I may be allowed to observe. 
I bave carefully looked over the first letter above referred to. I cannot see 
the discrepancy reiterated by the Department. Doubtless I am not vei-sed 
in the language and forms pertaining to a diplomatist, and entitled to your 
consideration. The excitement of our national calamity has no doubt thrown 
to the surface individuals from whom your Department otherwise would ne- 
ver have heard. Nothing short, I am sure, would have influenced me to 
trespass upon your time. With a trembling hand I pulled your latch- 
string in April, 1862; I was courteously received and referred to Capt. Fox, 
who in a five minutes' conversation substantially awarded my ideas as par- 
taking of life and progress. I shall always remember that interview, and 
shall not question the motive. It served its purpose with me then. It was 
just a straw that encouraged me to think on and work. I had then encoun- 
tered the Army Ordnance Bureau — 1 have sipce the Navy Ordnance. That 
encounter is now a matter of history, and has fixed in my mind their intel- 
lectual and mechanical standard, and its influence is working its own elabora- 
tion. If the facts and arguments are mine, they can only say with a his- 
toric character, " Let the people say I have got the crown." 

The Hon. Secretary's letter to Capt. Rogers was sent to me in a navy 
envelope, I suppose to vindicate the 15-inch guns from charges j)referred by 
me. In the name of our mechanics and engineers, who have expressed to 
me their views on that part of the letter only that relates to the big gun, we 
protest against. 

We cannot see how the Atlanta aground and at short range (150 yards), 
and only 2-inch iron shield and 8 inches w^ood can be considered any test at 
all in this age of progress. True, she had an inner skin of two-inch iron 
bolted on. (This description of Atlanta's shield is taken from the press.) 

I would respectfully enquire if the test has not fixed the facts that bolts, 
even in our heavy shielded vessels, are driven by the dozen inward, by the 
concussion of a single shot ; and does not this fact settle the question that 
the Atlanta's inner skin made her far more dangerous to her own crew than 
even if she had no shield at all ? and has any person alleged that 2 inches 
iron and 8 of wood wa's protection against the most ordinary ordnance ? 
(A friend who has just examined, says that Atlanta's shield is 4 inches iron 
with 18 inches wood backing.) 

I acknowledge obligations for the attention I have received from the De- 
partment in these letters relating to construction of vessels. I felt that if 
there was a real fraternity it would be manifest in ofiering to advance a part 
of cost of construction as work progressed, and in view of testing that feeling 
I made that statement for advance as the work progressed, with the ofler of 
security that should be satisfactory to the Department. We think we were 
entitled to that advance, and yet we do not now make it conditional to fiUino- 
any order we might receive from Department. 



14 

It is not now essential to us that we build anything for the Department. 
The agonizing anxiety and labor attending the construction of any new and 
experimental work I cannot estimate by money value; nothing but a con- 
sciousness of aiding defences and approving fraternity of the Depai-tment 
would to me be remunerative. 

When I can feel my country safe I shall not be troubling any Department, 
and no influence but the simple merit of my own ideas and mechanical friends 
shall be used to procure a contract of any kind for me or my associates. My 
labor and my life is at my country's service, without reserve, whenever it can 
be useful. I would have been glad to have been spared doing or saying by 
some unaccountable impulse, the acts and words that have fixed the people's 
attention upon the Bureau. The assurance I have received, and am receiv- 
ing, of the correctness of my intuitive opinions from eminent men, in public 
and piivate life, at home and foreign, is a solace for past asperities. 

The Department can answer the business part of this letter, dechning it if 

it chooses or accepting it as a preliminary for a more specific arrangement. 

I would hke an answer by return, as it will have a material influence with 

me in future arrangements. I think I will never again trouble you with a 

long epistle. 

M. STODDAED. 



Buffalo, June 29tli, 1863. 
Hon. G. y. Fox, Assistant Sec'f U. S. Kavy: 

Sir, — I thank you for forwarding me, under oflacial frank, copy of Na- 
tional Intelligencer, with a pen mark drawing attention to the Hon. Gideon 
Welles' ofiicial letter to Capt. Rogers. Also for your marginal note referring 
me to Sir Charles Lyell for authority for the extract I made in my last note 
to your Department, in which I had the honor to say to you was an extract 
from a communication of a friend. If it is substantially a quotation or com- 
pilation (which I do not doubt) from diflerent standard authorities, how 
eminently I am sustained in the reply I made to your statement '* that the 
earth was not formed by impulses or sudden upheavings." I have not now 
before me the work of Sir Charles Lyell to which you refer me ; if I had I 
should take with caution his statements when not corroborated by other 
standard works on the same subject. I have witnessed the carelessness of 
his observations. In his writings, when he was traveling in this State in the 
month of September, he describes the sugar maple, from which sugar is 
made (as witnessed that time by himself), the sap of which was everywhere 
tricklino; down into wooden trouo^hs from P'ashes made in the bark. Did 
you ever make sugar in September ? 

Your boldness and intrepidity I like. I want to get you on the right 
track, and freed from the dead weights that drag you down. 



15 

I freely join tlie Hon. Secretary in his letter of commendation to Capt. 
Rogers. I rejoice at any success on land or water. I will not be satisfied 
until I can feel assured we have demonstrated the utmost progress in war 
appliances on land and water, commensurate with the genius and skill of our 
people. 

As I have taken decided ground against the , 15-inch gun, which is sim- 
ply a revival of the discarded bombards of the sixteenth century, and have 
protested against the false and lying official reports of their performance, 
and upon which the public have been wheedled out of untold millions in 
their construction and attendant fixtures. 

I presume that part of the Hon. Secretary's letter which relates to the 
15-inch guti influenced you in marking and sending me the paper. That 
our boasted iron clads have met an old merchant vessel remodeled by rebel 
enterprise into a war vessel in a narrow, crooked channel where no oppor- 
tunity presented for profiting by her superior speed, simply proves what I 
have before stated to you of the audacity of our enemies ; also it demonstrates 
what no one has pretended to deny, that a 15-inch shot, at short range and 
small charge of powder, would give a crushing blow. It is not beheved that 
naval fights are hereafter to be contested at close quarter, if so other means 
than guns will be used. The contest now is with speed in ships and range 
in guns. 

The same 22 tons w^eight you now have in your 15-inch gun, if it was 
made of proper material into an eight-inch caliber gun of proper proportions, 
would throw a tworhundred pound bolt with more powder than is now used 
in monitors' 15-inch guns, and at one mile would be just as efiicient as your 
monitors' 15-incli at close quarters. Steel pointed shells could be thrown at 
great distances with sufficient force to pierce iron clads, or forts of masonry, 
and exploding would be destructive to forts at distance ; our monitors w^ould 
be comparatively safe. The present experience of the world would seem to 
make it idle to talk about getting more powerful guns by increasing caliber 
and reducing maximum charge. 

What we most want Mr. Secretary, is vessels that can out-sail our ene- 
mies, and guns of longer range than any possessed by them. The genius of 
American mechanics can produce both. Can you not devise some means to 
make it available in war ? Until that can be done I beg that our commerce 
may be called in, rather than be made a prey to pirates, who tempted with 
so rich a bate will spring up hke hydra monsters in every nook of our in- 
dented coast and rivers. 

M. STODDARD. 



16 

Buffalo, August 15th, 1863. 
Ho5T. Sec'y Gideon Welles: 

Sir, — I called at your Department on Wednesday of this week, to show 
CajDt. Fox a project for a wrought iron gun, represented by a drawing, pre- 
senting a gun that is entirely within the range of our mechanical fixtures and 
ability to construct ; the dimensions of which place it within the reach of 
science to determine its attacking force. From its 8-inch caliber I have no 
doubt it would eject a projectile with the explosive force of the weight of a 
round iron bah in powder, and that it would impart to a 200 or 2251b. bolt 
a higher velocity than has been attained in this or any other country. 

I sent this drawing into the Department for examination by the Hon. Sec- 
retary, whose messenger returned it to me with the request that I would 
take it to the Ordnance Department. 

We have encountered those Bureaus, and fixed their moral, intellectual, 
and mechanical status. The love we bear our country has impelled us to 
speak the truth to the sovereign people, and give the reasons why Alabamas 
go unpunished ,and Sumter's and McAllister's walls so long successfully defy 
a mighty nation's power, but which is chained down by a legally constituted 
set of Bureaus, whose frauds, empiricisms and mechanical incompetency is 
now well known. I will not hold converse with those bureaus of ordnance," 
and you, Mr. Secretary, and the President will be held responsible for the 
longer toleration of ofiicial insolence and mechanical incapacity that rules the 
bureaus of this nation, who are inti'usted with the nation's treasure and vest 
it in second-rate vessels and second-rate guns. 

Hecatombs of my fellow-countrymen have been, and are still unnecessarily 
sacrificed, who might have been spared if the nation's money could have been 
vested in ships and guns with the best mechanical skill and genius the nation 
possessed. With pain and humiliation I am compelled to make these state- 
ments ; I owe it to my country. I would feign excuse myself with a plea of 
hallucination or monomania, but I am daily receiviug assurances from emi- 
nent men in public and private life, that I am right, and that my work is ex- 
ercising a healthful influence, and insist that I must continue to think and 
give expression to living progressive ideas. I have presented no idea to your 
Department but what is demonstrable by mechanical science. 

I will state a fact to the Hon. Secretary ; I wish you specially to ponder 
upon it. It may be valuable for you to know the artisan of Buffalo will tell 
you the speed of every or any vessel in the navy if you will furnish lines, 
model of vessel, specifications of engine, etc. If this can be done correctly, 
and which can be demonstrated by the known performance of those in com- 
mission, it certainly can be done with those now under construction and pro- 
jected ; and the same rules will test any well-defined project. 

MOSES STODDARD. 



Buffalo, Sept. 30, 1863. 
Hon. G. V. Fox, Assistant Sec'y U. S. Navy: 

^ir, — In the several interviews I had the honor to receive at your office 
about the middle of this month with the Assistant Secretary, I was forcibly 
impressed with your statements, and thought I had fully discharged my 
whole duty so far as relates to intercourse with the Department. ^ 

As the subjects of our correspondence and interviews is so vital to hfe, so 
vast in national import, and considering that my previous correspondence 
with your Department is a fixed historical fact, reflection impresses upon me 
a reply to your statements in these late interviews. So mighty are the con- 
sequences involved, personal consideration ceases in obhvion. 

If any words I may hereafter speak seem to have personal application, re- 
member it is because the individual stands for Government Department or 
Bureaus, and represent the people in means and measures upon the success 
of which the nation's existence hinges. 

The Assistant Secretary, in the above-named interviews, said to me that 
the Weehawken's encounter with the Atlanta was at 400 or 450 yards; also, 
that the Atlanta was not aground until disabled and driven aground. 

In Mr. Seward's circular to Foreign Ministers and Governments, the Sec- 
retary says, *' At 5 o'clock 15 minutes, at 300 yards, the Weehawken en- 
gaged the Atlanta, she having then groundecV 

Eye witnesses, whose only business there was to report the facts, speak of 
the encounter at 150 yards. It is reasonable to suppose that if it commenced 
at 300 it might end at 150 yards, and their published report after examin- 
ing the Atlanta's shield of wood and iron, is widely at variance with the 
statement you gave me. 

Also in those same interviews j^ou repeatedly and unqualifiedly told me I 
mio-ht make for the Department one wrought iron gun, at $1 per pound, of 
my own plan. But not six, as I proposed. If you gave a quantity to any 
one you said Mr. Ames was entitled to them. And when I accepted your 
proposition to bmld one gun, yoii stammered, hesitated, said I must be re- 
ferred, and denied granting me your ow^n offer. With these palpable evi- 
dences, who shall I believe even in regard to these conflicting statements of 
the Atlanta, etc. You also told me you were firing 60lbs. of powder from 
the test gun of 15-inch cahber, at the navy yard, and obtaining over 1500 
feet per second velocity. 

Allow me to say to you, you dare not fire that gun five times with 60lbs. 
powder of good quality, proved by chemical tests, and with a sohd shot at 
elevation sufficient to give its full range, in the presence of disinterested en- 
gineers. And with 60lbs. powder you can't throw the ball 1500 feet from 
muzzle of gun in one second; nor one half mile at 800 feet per second; nor 
one mile at 700 feet per second. 

And furthermore, your exparte trials in the hands of officers who already 



18 

stand before the public with garments reeking with frauds upon the nation's 
treasure, shall we be asked to accept of further perfidy in justification of prior 
perjuries made to conceal robberies of national treasure at a time w^hen na- 
tional life is vibrating over the brink of ruin ? Beheving these statements to 
be truths, can I hold my peace ? Is there not danger that these officers, when 
they can no longer conceal their robberies will turn incendiaries ? 

You said to me, that I did not w^ant to furnish vessels or guns, if I did I 
would not talk so ; and after a pause you added, '< you talk very well, but it 
do n't sound business or as if you wanted a contract." I was not prepared 
to understand or reply. I now suppose the rendering should be: That if I 
wanted a contract I must become toad-eater, a parasite, an emasculated man, 
at least particeps criminis in the treasury frauds and mechanical incapacity 
that pervades the Bureaus, who are appointed by law to receive the vast na- 
tional treasure appropriated for ships of war and ordnance; but who have 
not furnished us in return for treasure one single fast war ship fit to do the 
pohce of the sea, or one single wrought iron gun of great attacking power, 
both of which the genius and skill of private enterprize would have furnish- 
ed to order. Loyal and patriotic mechanics wanted to do it. They offered 
to guarantee unprecedented speed in ships and i-ange in wrought iron g-uns 
that would not burst. But such guns and such ships would burst the vail 
that conceils from the people the means by which the Bureaus restrain the 
genius of a mighty people. The mechanics of our inland lakes alone, would 
have sealed up those Southern poi'ts with fast going propellers, built here 
and run through the Canada locks. Long time ago they w^anted to do it. 
They oftered to get up a class of vessels for that especial purpose, whose 
minimum speed should be 14 miles and maximum 20 miles per hour, and 
price in accordance to demonstrated performance. Such vessels would have 
stopped English ^-esseis from carrying English guns and English cartridges 
to Southern rebels, to murder loyal men. Our dead in the field and in the 
deep are mainly chargeable to the omissions and commissions of the Bureaus. 
They are substantially the ruling oligarchy of this nation. Would that we 
could see e\idence of their ruling with loyal ability, inviting to their aid and 
fostering mechanical skill in the direction of apphances for war. I have not 
overstated the abihty of our mechanics to produce fast war ships and wrought 
iron guns. Loyal, experienced and able mechanics sustain me in these opin- 
ions, and capital, always cautious, is willing to back up those opinions. 

I can now see clearly that your Bureaus are committed : a fast war ship, 
a wrought iron gun of unprecedented range and power, would spoil their oc- 
cupation; it would bui'st the greatest monopoly and fraud that has trans- 
pired in modern times. The issue is taken; it remains to be seen how much 
time it will require for the people to digest and apply the remedy. Auda- 
city is the very element of the success hitherto of Bureaucracy. 

With assurances, etc., MOSES STODDARD. 



This is to certify, that on or about the middle of Sept., 1863, in several 
interviews with G. V. Vox, Assistant Sec'y U. S. Navy, the said Assistant 
^ec'y said I might make one 8-inch wrought iron gun, of my own plan, for 
the Depai'tment at $1 per pound. When I accepted the oifer he refused to 
allow me to execute his own offer, 

•MOSES STODDARD. 

8w()rii before me, Nov. 16, 1863. 

Wm. W. MANN, 
Com'r of Deeds in and for city of Buffalo, N. Y. 



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